‘And I am pleased to announce today that a letter will be sent shortly to every single GP practice in the country inviting them to bid for the first tranche of this funding with the aim of supporting more GP appointments and more proactive care for the most vulnerable.'

GP leaders have warned the new funding must be used to address infrastructure needs of practices after ministers indicated the funding could be targeted at developing new care models or to develop co-located premises with Post Offices and social services.

Primary care infrastructure

An NHS England board meeting last month heard that the funding would target the £250m primary care infrastructure fund for 2015/16 at ‘multi-speciality community providers’.

The funding would be allocated to commissioning teams according to merit of individual infrastructure schemes, officials said.

A total of around £1.1bn funded from fines imposed on banks will be spent on primary care infrastructure over four years.

A separate £200m fund for 2015/16, available to all subject to a prioritisation process, will support the creation of new care models and could also benefit primary care. It will be used to pump-prime test sites to promote transformation in line with new models described in the Five Year Forward View.